Main National Museum of Ashgabat

Museum of History and Ethnography and Saparmurat Turkmenbashi Museum on one exhibition area

Ashgabat is world famous for its marble architecture of the independence period. Many modern structures in the Turkmen capital, including not only buildings, but also monuments and sculptures, have already become the main city’s attractions, while some of them were even recorded in the Guinness Book of Records as “best of the best”. One of these Ashgabat attractions is the National Museum of the State Cultural Center of Turkmenistan. Earlier, this museum was just the Main National Museum. Everything in this museum is remarkable: its location, history, architecture, and artifacts displayed in it.

The State Museum of the State Cultural Center of Turkmenistan is the first and largest one of the 26 museums established following the independence of Turkmenistan. The official opening took place on 12 November 1998. It is located on Archabil Avenue in the picturesque Kopet Dagh foothills. Opposite the museum there is the main flag of Turkmenistan attached to one of the highest flagpole in world.

A three-storey museum complex occupies about 15,000 sq. m. Its central hall is topped with a dioctahedral blue dome. The 16 facets mean the number of Turkic states founded by Turkmen ancestors. The dome is supported by 5 columns according to the number of velayats (provinces) of Turkmenistan. The complex is built in the tradition of modern national architecture. Finnish granite, precious woods, bronze, facing materials from Turkey were used in its decoration. Decorated with tracery metal grids, decorative cornices and tinted stained glass windows.

In the year 2009 the main building from its both sides was thrown out two more buildings to house the Museum of History and Ethnography and the Saparmurat Turkmenbashi Museum. The both buildings were harmoniously blended into the overall composition of the museum complex. All three buildings are connected with a colonnaded open gallery.

The territory, adjacent to the museum complex of 105,000 sq. m., is decorated with flower beds, as well as with an ensemble of three fountains and a colonnade with huge gilded statues of winged horses.

The State Museum of the State Cultural Center of Turkmenistan is equipped with the latest museum techniques, autonomous power and water supply systems, restoration halls, laboratories, computer systems that control lighting, humidity and air temperature. The total cost of the project was about $38,000,000.

Today, the museum complex exposition is divided into 7 thematic galleries to store over a total of 166,000 unique exhibits, many of which are of special historical and cultural importance.

The Museum of History and Ethnography has ancient artifacts found at the excavations of Nisa, Merv and Gonur, collection of vintage Turkmen carpets, rare examples of national clothing, jewelries, and antique weapons. The 9 halls display figurines of Athens, Eros, silver gilded griffin, horn-shaped ivory vessels-rhytons of the Parthian era, gold jewelries and medallions-stamps from Margiana, and Buddhist artifacts. There are also a fossilized piece of wood of the Paleozoic period, aged 270,000,000, dinosaurs’ footprints, an 820-kg meteorite, fallen in Kunya-Urgench in 1998, etc.

The State Museum of the State Cultural Center of Turkmenistan also includes the Saparmurat Turkmenbashi Museum. Its 10 thematic halls display personal belongings of the presidents, gifts of state leaders, valuable archival documents and photo materials, representing the country's recent history, as well as attributes of the presidential inauguration.

Branches of the State Museum of the State Cultural Center of Turkmenistan: